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千篇一律

Mandarin · pinyin qiān piān yī lǜ

thousand articles, same rule (idiom); stereotyped and repetitive
once you've seen one, you've seen them all

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Characters in this entry

千: qiān · thousand; many, numerous; very; (Cant.) a cheater, swindler
篇: piān · chapter, section, essay, article
一: yī · one; a, an; alone
律: lǜ · statute, principle, regulation

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–1–1–4 · qian1 pian1 yi1 lu:4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

cin1 pin1 jat1 leot6

Cantonese word readings for 千篇一律. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

phrase

(idiomatic) all of the same pattern; stereotyped

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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